An 8-week research elective (divided into 2 blocks of 4 weeks each) is available during the 1st year of training.  The goal of this elective is for the fellow to work under the supervision of the program director to identify a topic of interest for development of a scholarly project, perform an in-depth review of the literature of the topic, and formulate a hypothesis to address a knowledge gap in the field, followed by a presentation to the faculty to obtain feedback on the scholarly idea. The fellow at this stage with the help of the program director interviews potential mentors. The fellow identifies a mentor who supports, guides and monitors the fellow during their training. A secondary mentor is also appointed, as appropriate (for example, if the primary mentor is outside of the clinical Division). The program director appoints a Scholarly Oversight Committee that follows the progress of the fellow twice yearly as well (direct supervision).

Scholarly activity rotation: The subspecialty fellow has a minimum of 18 months of protected time to develop a scholarly activity during the 2nd and 3rd year of training. The scholarly activity offers a vehicle for the fellow to start becoming a recognized expert in a field related to the subspecialty and to meet the requirement of scholarly product of the American Board of Pediatrics. As with clinical activities, the relative involvement of the fellow and his/her mentors evolves over the course of the training concerning writing a project proposal (including study design), applying to IRB or Animal Care Committee, analysis and interpretation of data and presentation of data at local and national venues. The exact contribution of each at every step is governed by achieving pre-established milestones on a mutually agreed timeline (indirect supervision, with direct supervision immediately available)

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